German venture capital increased to 1.7 billion euros in the first quarter, and artificial intelligence became the "biggest engine"

According to KfWAccording to the latest statistics, growing start-ups received €1.7 billion in venture capital from funds and large companies in the first quarter of this year, up 6% year-on-year.

Statistics show that the growth of financing scale in this quarter is not driven by a single large transaction, but the result of the overall stable development of the market. In terms of industry distribution, most transactions in Germany are completed by start-ups in the medical industry, accounting for 18%, followed by financial companies with a share of just over 15%.

The AI boom has a particularly significant impact on the investment landscape: German startups relying on AI applications raised €967 million in the first quarter through 71 funding rounds. Investment in artificial intelligence accounted for 58% of the total venture capital market size in the quarter, significantly higher than the average of about 43% for the whole of 2025.

Artificial intelligence expert at the German Federal Agency for Foreign Trade and InvestmentAsha-Maria Sharma commented: "More and more money is flowing to German startups – a trend that shows that AI startups that are not limited to large language models (LLMs) are gaining significant attention from international investors. The strong ties between German start-ups and well-known universities and research institutions, as well as the clear focus on technology-driven business models, are important reasons why they are favored by venture capitalists.